In one minute
Vague writing is usually not a vocabulary problem. It is a decision the writer has not made yet — the specific is missing because the choice is still open.
Why it matters
Generic phrasing often marks the spot where a writer knew roughly what they meant and moved on. Replacing it is less about finding a better word than about deciding what was actually true.
This is also why heavy-handed “strengthen your language” editing flattens a voice: it swaps one generic register for another, more emphatic generic register.
See it
The meeting was a significant turning point that fundamentally changed the team’s approach.
After that meeting, nobody proposed a schedule again without naming who would say no.
The rewrite is not more forceful. It is more specific about what actually changed.
Try it
Find a sentence with “significant”, “various”, “a number of” or “fundamentally”. Ask what the exact case was — then write that instead.
When not to use it
Deliberate vagueness is a tool: a narrator withholding, a summary that should not pretend to precision it lacks, an early draft holding options open.
How SeamWriter notices it
SeamWriter flags phrasing that is statistically generic, including patterns common in AI-generated prose. It cannot tell a deliberate hedge from an unmade decision, so it asks rather than corrects.
For different writers
- Writing professionally
- In professional writing imprecision is often protective — it avoids committing. Worth checking whether that is a choice or a habit.
- Learning to write
- Point at the thing. “The dog” beats “the animal”; “Tuesday” beats “recently”.
Sources & basis
- A Theory of Linguistic Individuality for Authorship Analysis — Cambridge University Press